₦airaland Forum

The naira will trade at N415 to a dollar as the series of intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria are sustained.

The President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, on Tuesday in Lagos said that the new Forex policy had eliminated frivolous demand for the dollar.

According to him, frivolous demand for dollar has been responsible for the weakness of the naira.

The ABCON chief said that CBN’s continued intervention at the Forex market would soon spell doom for speculators and currency hoarders.

“Currency speculators and hoarders would suffer more losses as the CBN injects more dollars to the interbank market.

“The sustained intervention by the CBN will technically take speculators out of business.

“My expectation is that if both volumes and applicable exchange rates are reviewed for the BDC sub-sector, the naira would be trading at N415 to a dollar,’’ Gwadabe said.

The ABCON chief said that the CBN had recorded a huge success because of its new policy, adding that the naira had continued to strengthen at the parallel market, exchanging at N435 to a dollar.

He told said that granting of more access to the BDCs at the International Money Transfer Services Operators window would help to further strengthen the naira against the dollar.

The CBN has injected over $1.5bn since February when it started its intervention at the interbank market.

The apex bank said that its aim was to bring stability to the foreign exchange market and provide easy access of foreign currencies to businesses and individuals.

The CBN had on Monday injected additional $180m into the market to meet bids for wholesale auction and requests for invisibles such as medicals, school fees and personal travel allowances.

(NAN)

The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association on Wednesday appealed to the Federal Government to settle subsidy arrears of over N660bn allegedly owed marketers.

DAPPMA Executive Secretary, Mr. Olufemi Adewole, said that the arrears had impeded importation of petroleum products.

According to Olufemi, the drop in the importation of products by marketers is responsible for the long queues and idle trucks in the Apapa depot.

He said, “The main debt is over N500bn, while interest on the loans from various banks has risen to over N160bn in the last two years.

“The inability to pay or service the loans has not only impeded importation of fuel, but it is threatening the relationship between the affected banks and the marketers.

“The high foreign exchange rate is another big challenge; accessing Forex to import products has become herculean task.

“Besides, landing cost for petrol has risen to over N145 per litre from N133.28 kobo and marketers are worried as to what price to sell the product.”

Adewole appealed to the government to provide adequate foreign exchange and pay all outstanding debts to marketers to prevent distortion in the supply chain.

He said the huge debt owed marketers had taken toll on operators, adding that further delay in the payment of the debt as allegedly agreed by both parties might affect the sector.

He said, “Our banks are threatening to debit our accounts at the current rate of N360 to a dollar as against N197 to dollar that the government allocated foreign exchange to marketers.

“This means that we are the ones subsidising the imports.

“If government failed to address the lingering challenges on price differential, it’s not only marketers that will go down, the banks will also collapse because our exposure with the banks is in excess of 1.95 billion dollars.”

NAN

The Vice Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Labode Popoola, said on Saturday that the institution would collect the over N2bn debt students owe it whether they are able to recoup their money invested in the Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox or not.

Popoola said, “Some of them (students) used their school fees to invest in MMM. But whether MMM comes back or not, it is their headache. I have told them that we are not going to open the portal. If I see that a critical mass of the students pay, then we will decide to open the portal just for about 48 hours. But they must pay first.



“This is how we accumulated a debt profile of over N2bn, we cannot continue this way. They just have to pay the money.”

But MMM ‘investors’ have not been able to get their money back as of the time of filing this report.

In a chat with an MMM representative, one Juliana ‘Consultant’, told one of our correspondents that payment had not begun on Saturday but that the scheme would “pay soon.”

“Some accounts are frozen and ‘GH’ have commenced,” she said.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has declared that the Nigerian Army has defeated Boko Haram terrorists and has also deprived them from re-grouping anywhere in Nigeria, adding that the insurgents have been rendered incapacitated.

Buratai, who was on a familiarisation tour of military units and formations under the 3 Division of the Nigerian army, disclosed this yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, in his palace at Jishe, Jos.

The army chief said: “Your royal majesty I’m here this morning to pay a courtesy call on you before embarking on my familiarisation tour to units and formations under the 3 Division and indeed Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) here in the Plateau State.

“You can see that our efforts in the North-east have really paid off as the incessant bombing of market places and places of worships and populated areas has virtually stopped now. And I can assure you and the people of the state that they will never witness Boko Haram attacks like you witnessed in the past.

“For a long time now, we have not had any case of that nature here in Plateau State and other parts of Nigeria, it is because of the efforts of the military in the North-east. The Nigerian army has not only succeeded in rooting them from their camps in the region, we have been able to blocked these criminal elements from crossing down to these areas or re-building their camp anywhere in Nigeria.

“I want to assure you that we would remain resolute in the discharge of our duties. I want to particularly commend you on your role as the Gbong Gwom Jos, including all the moral support you gave us through wise counsel. We must acknowledge your support.”

Responding, Buba said: “The success of the Nigerian army over Boko Haram did not come to me as a surprise because I know very well that the Nigerian army historically has always distinguished itself wherever they had served; the history is simply replaying itself.

He also appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari for waging a successful fight against insurgency in the country.

Meanwhile, a group, Concered Professionals Congress (CPC), yesterday said the new initiative by the Defence Headquarters code-named Operation Safe Corridor aimed at rehabilitating, de-radicalising and re-integrating about 800 repentant Boko Haram members into the society will quicken the peace process and boost ongoing re-construction efforts in the North-east region.

CPC described the initiative as novel, bold and courageous at this critical moment in the history of the nation, saying the move would inspire hope, strengthen faith and restore confidence among Nigerians in the unity, stability and indivisibility of the country.

According to its Coordinator, Tukur Musa Tilde and its Chief Media Strategist, Emeka Nwapa, who addressed journalists in Lagos, the group said the move by the military high command to de-radicalise the repentant sect members can offer them another opportunity to contribute to the growth of the society while living their normal lives again, and ultimately advance the frontiers of humanity in the nation.

Expressing regrets over the “incalculable damage” which the gruesome sect had done to the destinies of several persons, families, institutions, communities and careers in the last five years, the group praised the Nigerian military leadership for galvanising the patriotic and gallant troops in alliance with other security forces in the country to downgrade Boko Haram terrorists in the country thereby setting the stage for robust global interest for rebuilding programmes.

CPC further observed that ‘Operation Safe Corridor’ offers the nation and its citizens a great opportunity to re-invent and reinforce its unity, sovereignty and indivisibility in line with the aspirations, dreams and philosophy of one nation.

The group argued that Liberia and Sierra Leone were instances of countries with worse cases of crimes committed by citizens against fellow citizens as well as felony against the state “but are today living in admirable peace and harmony because the ex-combatants willingly surrendered and were de-radicalised, rehabilitated and re-integrated by their people into the society.

“We have reviewed the unfolding situation in the North East regarding the military’s offer to de-radicalise and rehabilitate about 800 repented Boko Haram members. We believe Operation Safe Corridor being executed alongside Operation Crackdown has tipped-off the sect’s final defeat necessary to fast track the peace process towards rebuilding of the region.

“As a people and a nation capable of forgiving and forgoing wrongs, this initiative has further advertised the totality of our oneness which the entire world should recognise in line global best practices.

“We are even more pleased with the patriotic zeal, gesture and support of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, the Gombe Emirate and the good people of Gombe State and the environs, among other participating stakeholders for providing the space to accommodate the ex-sect members,” Tilde said.

The group praised the courage and sincerity of the sect’s 800 repentant members for denouncing their membership of the group and willingly surrendering to the military’s de-radicalization and rehabilitation programme, pointing out that it is no longer news that many of them were either drugged, deceived or coerced into the activities of the sect.

Global oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, on Thursday said its liquids production available for sale in Nigeria plunged by 41 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

Shell announced a 72 per cent drop in second quarter earnings amid the continued weakness in global oil and gas prices.

The oil major’s liquids production available for sale in Nigeria was put at 37,000 barrels per day in the second quarter of this year, down from 63,000 bpd in the same period of 2015.

Total production by Shell Production Development Company of Nigeria Limited, its local subsidiary, stood at 128,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 163,000 boepd in the same quarter of last year.

A series of militant attacks in the Niger Delta targeted at oil and gas facilities belonging to oil majors, including Shell, Eni and Chevron, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Aiteo, has led to the shutdown of several fields in the country.

Currently, Forcados, Qua Iboe and Brass River crude oil grades are under force majeure, while Escravos and Bonny Light are facing significant loading delays.

“Earnings could be further impacted if the security conditions continue to deteriorate,” Shell said in its second quarter 2016 report.

This month, Shell shut the Trans Niger pipeline, which is one of the pipelines that carry crude to the Bonny Light Export Terminal, following a leak in Ogoniland.

Oil theft and sabotage are rampant in the Niger Delta. Militant groups have orchestrated a campaign of attacks on oil infrastructure this year that saw the nation’s oil production fall to its lowest in nearly three decades.

Yes this was what I thought but the CBN is yet to admit that so let's stick to what we know, unless I am chatting with Emiefele, then i will agree with you, if the CBN has lost completely their ability to fix the naira, why adopt dirty float against free float?

It is mere speculation you can't be so sure, I heard from an investor who said he is more concerned about the unrest in the Niger delta than the Fx risk.

How can you create jobs when your policy is parking up your manufacturing sector? Didnt you notice that while everything increased in price in the market, Beer never did, did you bother to find out why? By next week NBL will be forced to adjust prices or lay off staff in the worse case scenario, Buhari knew what he was saying, devaluation was never the answer.

jpphilips:
A successful brick layer has more economic relevance than you in the scheme of things even with your paper Economics certificate from an under funded charge and bail Nigeria university or polytechnic. You should be ashamed to tell me you are an economist while you wield the opinion of a tailor.

Buharinomics was tried and tested, fix the currency, give it cheap to manufacturers to spur growth then allow the toothpick importers to face the parallel market.
Emiefelenomics devalued and bridged the gap, raw materials and equipment manufacturing have no access to cheap forex anymore, cost of manufacturing soared which led to high cost of both Local and imported products, worsened inflation yet no foreign and local investor in sight.

In the scheme of things, Buhari (the illiterate) is winning the Phd wielding Emiefele, it is not by paperwork, it is by experience, Buhari has experienced economic downturn in 1985, that is the experience Emiefele doesn't have.

jpphilips:
You shouldn't write him off completely, he has a point when he said you have no real working card on the table.

modath:
Both of you are just a laugh a minute, X

One typed SHALE , the other read it as "SHELL" & una con dey debate that ... make una try dey read well sha.

modath:
I won't dignify your inanity with a response..

Emmyk:
Very explicit @Truth

HiddenShadow:
Falana voted CHANGE why is he complaining of the CHAIN placed on him

Truth234:
But CBN needs to adjust its forex policy because Nigeria is a heavy import dependent nation and definitely need that aspect to enhance the economy and create jobs now that oil revenue is minimal. If CBN want to encourage local patronage, they need to provide enabling platform for local manufacturers/investors by first reducing interest rates on bank loans.

Our manufacturing sector is currently too poor to sustain our population size.

nikky2015:
Hello all

Just wondering if anyone knows if school aged children(primary school) of international students ( on either BSc , PGD or Masters by coursework)
are required to pay tution fees for tehir primary education.

If yes, how much?

are they required to pay in full prior to the grant of the Visa?
thanks

echobee:
Na wa oooooo . End time okada man

jpphilips:
Turning down a nanny because of HIV is clueless, are you by any chance related to Goodluck?
You can as well bag a jail term for discriminating against PLWHA.

You are actually going to court to report yourself, by the way, how much will pay the lawyer representing you? 10k?
Women brain sef

ireneony:
this is a spiritual problem o cos without her document she cannot return to america.
the enemy in her village must be work